The Big Rich

Big is clearly the operant word here in this true story about the U.S. oil industry. It can be used to describe the vast sums of money generated by oil and the egos of the four oilmen who made Texas the American oil capital: H.L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, Roy Cullen, and Sid Richardson. It describes the size of this book and the credible narration of all this Texas and U.S. history by James Jenner. He aptly depicts billionaire Hunt as a strange loner and Murchison's efforts to cull favor with right-wingers like Hoover, McCarthy, and Nixon. As Burrough writes of the successes, mistakes, and overindulgences of these magnates, Jenner is careful to clearly distinguish between their personalities, placing emphasis on their idiosyncrasies. Their era may have ended, but their import hasn't, and Jenner's narration capably pieces together this slice of twentieth-century history. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine